In “Scientists Respond to FTC Inquiry into Tech Censorship,” Tech Policy Press examines the US Federal Trade Commission’s February announcement of an inquiry into how technology platforms’ content moderation practices impact users across the political spectrum. The article features insights from leading scholars, including GW Engineering’s David Broniatowski, a professor of engineering management and systems engineering, on whether social media companies disproportionately moderate content from one side and if social science research supports claims of bias in recommendation algorithms.
Here is an excerpt from Broniatowski’s reply: “Platforms’ public policies targeting COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation did not explicitly target political content. However, misinformation about these topics was more prevalent in vaccine-skeptical communities, which increasingly endorsed vaccine refusal as a civil right - a message aligned with political conservatism - in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, those communities bore the brunt of enforcement actions. Importantly, other health topics also contained misinformation suggesting that health misinformation is not restricted to partisan issues. Rather, health misinformation is a systemic feature of social media more broadly.”
Read the full article on the Tech Policy Press.